Maung Thar Cho - Poems on the Bee Trail

Short autobiography

What is an editor?

The graveyard of art.

The school teacher is

The graveyard of knowledge.

Marriage is...

The tomb of love.

Early death

Some... they spared me.

Pefu Lata, December, 1991.

Passenger

John John Jack John John Jack

The journey of the earworm

The train is a big train.

Enter the forest and climb the mountain.

White Swan Black Swan Journey

It's a long way from shore.

Move on the water.

Goo goo goo ships..

Flying among the clouds

Winged car and airplane.

If it's fast, I want to follow.

Large golden eagles.

June , September 2012.

Mirror and pussy

The golden cat from the other side

Grow a tail like me. -

That guy over there is a pussy.

A mustache like mine.

My hair is golden yellow.

He is also a golden-haired man.

I lie down flat and cry.

He is my back.

Looking at each other's heads

He is my face too.

I scratched him with my fingernails.

He scratched me back.

Beep beep beep.......

Juniori January, 2012.

On the trail

One

My first published work was a poem. It was published in the December 1973 issue of the magazine "Thaw Myaing Kha La La" (The Variety of Funny Things). I was a ninth grader at the time. I remembered it as a funny poem and couldn't remember it.

Oh, and in the notebook, the only evidence left is the title of the poem, "Modern Love." It was certainly not a good poem.

Then I continued to write poems. After writing more than 100 poems and then writing the poem “Return” in April 1997 in the magazine “Kalya”, I stopped writing poems, I don’t know why. It just stopped spontaneously and became silent. I had been writing for years, and I had to stop. So, after more than twenty years, in 2019, I wanted to write poems again.

2 years

No matter how dark the times are, or how difficult the situation is to survive, the world of Burmese poetry continues to thrive thanks to the perseverance and nurturing of poets, poetry critics, and scholars.

Sometimes I look up to the world of poetry and wonder if I will ever reach it.

I wonder if I really discovered poetry. I remember Saya Dagon Thara. In his article “Discovering Poetry,” he said, “At first I didn’t discover poetry. I only discovered rhyme.” Didn’t he look back on himself and say, “Everything I wrote was poetry. There were a lot of rhymes. I’m not sure.

Three

Collecting poems for this book is a little tricky.

Poems such as “ The Night of the Broken Story” (June 1985, Sampae Phyu), “Or...Reading in Yangon” (May 1986, Movie Aung Lan), “33rd Street/86” (December 1986, Movie Spectacles), and “Wangkapa Festival” (1995, Tharufu, No. 13) were torn up by the literary censorship and have never been found again.

The poem “My Betel Hill” was torn out in July 1990, in the film Song of Songs, and was re-authorized in February 1991, in Cherry. The poem “The Path of the Bee” was torn out in February 1991, in the front page, and was re-authorized in March 1993, in Myat Maung. I couldn’t understand why.

“ I Was Born on a Tuesday” (February 1991, Pe Phu Lah), “Phu Kyaar Lam” (1991, Pi Tauk Pwint Thit), and “Kyan Sitthi Nya Ma Cho Bu” (1991, Pi Tauk Pwint Thit) were not approved by the Censorship Office, but the paintings were returned because they were featured in books such as Htein Lin’s “ABSDF Northern Student Protests.”

I have compiled this collection of poems, excluding poems that are half-written, poems that are cut into one line, and poems that are not available for the time being. It is not a selection. It is just something that is within reach.

Even if those who are in front say that they like only one verse, one verse, one half, one verse, it is still worth presenting it together.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Yangon University Library, the University Central Library, the National Library (Yangon/Nay Pyi Taw), and the Iyin Cho Cho Bookstore.

Maung Thar Cho, Yangon